Topic: Oregon

Matt Lewis collecting petitions at the Saturday market in Portland on May 13, 2012.(Photo by A.V. Crofts/UW Election Eye)

Washington and Oregon both legalized medical marijuana in 1998. Since then, there’s been amendments, initiatives, petitions, and proposals. Here’s a breakdown of the laws in our neighboring states, and a look at what lessons Washington can learn from Oregon as we consider legalization.

PORTLAND — During our second day in Portland, with temperatures nearing 90 degrees making it feel more like July than May, the UWEE team found a man collecting signatures at the Saturday Market. He was advocating for two initiatives that would make the Oregon marijuana law more lenient. We had seen similar efforts all over town.

Marijuana legalization will also be one of the hot-button issue in Washington this election season: Initiative-502 will be on your ballot in November.

According to New Approach Washington, a group supporting the ballot initiative, I-502 “would license and regulate marijuana production, distribution, and possession for persons over twenty-one; remove state-law criminal and civil penalties for activities that it authorizes; tax marijuana and marijuana sales; and earmark marijuana-related revenues.”

The Multnomah County library ballot initiative provided an opportunity to launch a crowdsourced social media campaign that leveraged place-based networks — social networks that aggregate user visits and reviews of physical locations, such as Yelp or Foursquare — to raise awareness and build community around the library system.

The hot weather and the build up to Tuesday's primary brought out campaign t-shirts on Mother's Day weekend May 12-13, 2012 (Photo by UW Election Eye)

With Portland Mayor Sam Adams not running for re-election after one term, 23 candidates are competing for the open seat in this Tuesday’s primary election in what might be called a Hunger Games-like scenario. The two top vote-getters will go on to compete for the seat in November, unless someone wins more than 50% of the vote, in which case he or she wins the mayoral race.

Washingtonians who shop in Oregon or make tax-free purchases online might not know it, but they’re actually breaking the law. With a billion dollar budget shortfall, state lawmakers are considering drastic measures to make up this lost revenue.

SEATTLE — I remember the day my father brought home our flat screen TV. It was about seven years ago, he went on a business day-trip to Portland and came back with a huge flat box and a “guess what I got” smirk on his face. He said he happened to walk into an electronic store earlier that day, found the slick 52-inch flat screen for $800. The best part is, he didn’t have to pay sales tax in Oregon!

A lot of Washingtonians do the same. Drive a couple of hours (or just a few minutes if you live in Vancouver, WA) across the southern border and get the same things you can in Washington, but without up to 10% sales tax you’d pay here.

That’s a pretty good saving, and no harm done, right?

Well it turns out it’s illegal. And it’s costing our budget-crunched state government quite a chunk of change.